Company Driver wanting to go Owner Operator.

I don’t recommend a mechanical motor for OTR highway service. The maintenance intervals are too intensive. You can do well as an independent but it comes with a lot more work and being gone longer than you are now with Averitt. If you do things right, I’m confident you can pay yourself near 70k in total compensation and still have profit left for the business. It’s not about the money for everyone. I like not having to deal with drama of working for a carrier. I like having a truck and trailer spec’d exactly how I want it for maximum efficiency. I’d recommend a newer model 2015 or later truck with APU or at least 25% idle hours or less. If you have the credit, spec one new for maximum mpg. These new 2017 and beyond motors are doing great.

 

Where abouts are you from?

You're gonna be hard pressed to run a mechanical engine truck with elogs since they require to be plugged into an ecm afaik. And most all the larger co's out there require an elog device to be installed in the truck regardless of year.

Why dont you post some pics of the truck so we can get an idea of its condition.

 

Blah. They only ran mechanical engines otr for how many decades?

Not everyone wants a plastic aero truck to drive 58mph in, Kevin.

 

A mechanical motor made sense at one time. They can’t compete with an electronic pre emission motor or a modern 2015 and beyond or, especially, a 2017 and beyond motor. Your maintenance and fuel with a mechanical motor is not worth it. If you’re going to be in business you should focus on the lowest cost possible. I drive a plastic aero truck and it makes me lots of money. It’s not about what I want, but makes the most profit.

 

I'm an O/O. Been doing it for 6 months. I've had a CDL for over 20 years now, done a lot of different jobs in the trucking indusrty.

I drove 3 years for Werner Enterprises, 2 for Knight Transportation. I bought a truck and started the O/O business with them.

I O/O through Knight for 6 months, decided to get a trailer, my own authority and go out on my own.

It's been an adventure, there's a learning curve figuring everything out.

One thing, a lot of brokers won't work with people with a new authority until you have a certain amount of experience.

C.H. Robinson and TQL got me through my first 30 days until some others started working with me. I just got 6 months under my belt, I can work with most brokers now, I ran into one that said their policy is one year though.

It's good money, but you got to work. I like being my own boss and picking where I go. I can book loads out of my home area, when I was with Knight my terminal was KC, most of their loads came out of there. I lived 3 hours away, so I ran the truck out of KC. I now run it out of my home town.

With Knight, I never got loads I could bring home for the weekend, deliver Monday. I set up loads like that all the time, it's nice to leave for work and your truck is 50 feet away, instead of a 3 hour drive.

 

Well, it's really not that big a deal. If you choose to rebuild the old Pete that's your business. It might cost a little up front but you'll know what you have when your done. There are plenty of smaller companies, especially around Texas, that will take on your old pete provided it is sound mechanically. That way you can advoid the eld. Another choice pertaining to the eld is to run only in Texas which eliminates the requirement for an eld. Believe me, there is plenty of freight in Texas, especially flatbed freight. Whatever route you decide to take just make sure your truck is sound, hook it to a good wagon, keep good maintenance on them, and put your money up for rainy days. Because son lemme tell you there will be plenty of them. Take care and good luck. Been at this 30 years and wouldn't trade it for anything.